The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of Neoregelia hybrid, botanically known as Neoregelia and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name `Zoe`. Neoregelia species are tank epiphytes with stemless inflorescences and flowers that barely rise above the water in the center of the plants. `Zoe` can be advantageously grown as a single-pot or hanging-basket plant in order to display its symmetrically rosette plant form.
`Zoe` is characterized by its small plant size and grayed-purple of its leaf margins (RHS 187 A). The leaf margin at the sheath is RHS 137 C. The center variegation of the leaf is RHS 187 D. `Zoe` is a stoloniferous plant that produces leaves with an overall wine color appearance.
`Zoe` is a product of a planned breeding program and was originated from a cross made in Balsa, Costa Rica, in 1989. The female parent (unpatented) was an unnamed plant of (Neoregelia carolinae lineata.times.Neoregelia `Fireball`).times.Neoregelia `Fireball`. The male parent (unpatented) was Neoregelia `Fireball`, an unnamed species from Brazil that is known as Neoregelia schultesiana in Europe. `Zoe` was discovered and selected as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross by the inventor, Chester Skotak, Jr., in 1991, in a controlled environment in a nursery in Balsa, Costa Rica. `Zoe` was first asexually reproduced in Balsa, Costa Rica in 1991, by division. Subsequent asexual reproduction by vegetative propagation has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new cultivar are firmly fixed and reproduces true to type through successive generations of asexual reproduction.